Table Of Content2 0 0 5 E d i t i o n
Crack the Case
How to Conquer
Your Case Interviews
cover - 2005 Edition-new
colors
This book is dedicated to my dad,
who ignited my interest in business;
my mom, who taught me how to read
people and to trust my intuition;
and Shiloah, my beautiful wife who
with intelligence, wit, patience and
perseverance has made this book and
our business a successful reality.
Crack the Case: How to Conquer Your Case Interviews, 2005 Edition. Copyright ©2004 by David L
Ohrvall. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be reproduced in
any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems without
permission in writing from the publisher. Published by Turtle Hare Media, PO Box 941, Naperville, IL 60566.
Visit our website at www.consultingcase.comfor information and to order additional copies.
Although the author and publisher have made every effort to ensure the accuracy and completeness of
information contained in this book, we assume no responsibility for errors, inaccuracies, omissions, or any
inconsistency herein. Any slights of people, places or organizations are unintentional.
First printing September, 2003
Second edition September, 2004
Ohrvall, David L
Crack the Case: How to Conquer Your Case Interviews
ISBN 0-9744428-3-6
ATTENTION CORPORATIONS, UNIVERSITIES, COLLEGES, AND PROFESSIONALORGANIZATIONS:
Quantity discounts are available on bulk purchases of this book for educational or gift purposes. For
information, please contact Turtle Hare Media, PO Box 941, Naperville, IL 60566; [email protected]
Crack the Case
How to Conquer Your
Case Interviews
2005 Edition
Contents
Foreword 4
Introduction: Something’s Broken 5
Part 1 What Really Matters
9
Chapter 1 A View from Behind the Interview Desk
19
Chapter 2 Business Case Interviews – The Main Thing
Part 2 One Model/One Method
29
Chapter 3 The Maximum Value Model™
48
Chapter 4 The FRAME Method™
Part 3 An Insider’s View
61
Chapter 5 The Interview Timeline
Chapter 6 Behind Closed Doors 72
Part 4 Perfect Preparation
81
Chapter 7 Wrong Turns and Dead Ends
85
Chapter 8 Build Your Base in 15 Hours
108
Chapter 9 Ten Interactive Practice Case Packs
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Copyright ©2004 David L Ohrvall All rights reserved. sseerriioouuss ccaassee iinntteerrvviieeww pprreepp
Foreword
Dear Readers,
Welcome to the 2005 Edition of Crack the Case: How to Conquer Your Case Interviews!
This volume updates the original Crack the Caseguide published in September 2003.
I would like to thank my readers for their enthusiastic responseto Crack the Case. The
book was warmly welcomed by several leading business schools andI personally
received a great number of positive testimonials, encouraging notes, and helpful
feedback over the course of the last year. Much of this feedback has been incorporated
into the 2005 Edition.
I am also grateful for my coaching clients, the very focused andtalented individuals who
met with me one-on-one to sharpen their case-solving skills. Working with over one
hundred and fifty clients in the last twelve months has helped me to refine my methods
and develop additional recommendations to optimize case interview performance.
My One Model / One Method approach remains the core of Crack the Case. The 2005
Edition contains the following changes to enhance your case interview preparation and
make the concepts introduced in the book easier to practice and apply:
Reformatted Case Packs: These tough cases have the same content as before but are
even easier to use in your practice sessions. I have added an innovative Case at a
Glance section and simplified notes for the interviewer.
Interviewer/Candidate Evaluation Sheets: I have also added two new assessment
sheets for the “Interviewer” and “Candidate”to complete at the end of the case. These
sheets ask you to rate the case performance on a scale of 1 to 6in four critical areas:
Planning & Logic, Communication & Composure, Analytics, and Recommendation.
Expanded hypothesis explanation: I have provided additional information on how you
can use this mental “anchor”to help you focus your questions and solve your cases
quickly and effectively.
I hope this book is a useful stepping stone to the job of your dreams. I would love to hear
any feedback you have on my materials. I can be reached throughmy website at
[email protected].
Best of luck with your case interviews!
David Ohrvall
September 2004
4
Introduction
Something’s Broken
“Success is more a function of consistent common sense than it is of
genius.” -An Wang
I hung up the phone and ticked off the evening’s final ding call. This last conversation
had been rough. The candidate was one of twelve I had interviewed that day. On
paper, he was an outstanding prospect: before entering the Wharton School, he had
spent three years at an investment bank; he had a bachelor’s degree in mathematics
from Northwestern; and his GMAT score was 720. In person, he was even more
impressive than his resume suggested. Thoroughly professional, very friendly, and
obviously intelligent, he seemed the perfect consultant.
There was only one problem: he bombed my case. He couldn’t frame a good
approach to the case, which involved a large travel agency losing corporate clients.
He tried to apply a well-known business framework, but it wasn’t appropriate for a
company in the service sector. The interview wasn’t all bad—he shined on the
quantitative aspects, speeding through the calculations and projections that had
tripped up several other candidates that day. But when our timewas up, he was
nowhere near a solution, let alone recommendations for our “client.”
When he asked for feedback over the phone, I tried to be as specific as possible
without further discouraging him. Most consulting firms had already interviewed on
his campus. I knew his chances of getting an offer from one of the top firms were
dwindling. What could I say that would help him improve for next time? Would there
even be a next time?
I wondered why he had such trouble with my case. He had prepared for his
interviews using the various case interview guides and practice cases on the market,
and like most other students at top MBA programs, he was accustomed to working
hard and achieving results. Why should preparing for a case interview be any
different?
5
The answer: it’s not. With the right tools and the right kind of practice, youcan learn
to solve the toughest business cases like a seasoned consultant.
Crack the Caseis the result of my firsthand experience interviewing MBA and
undergraduate candidates at the top business schools in the country. It is the result
of nine years in consulting, serving thirty different companies across a dozen
industries. And it’s the result of solving complex business problems side by side with
some of the brightest minds in management consulting.
My Philosophy
The focus of Crack the Case is the business case interview. Why? Because
business cases now comprise the majority of case interviews given to MBA
candidates. The top consulting firms are moving away from using brainteasers and
simple market sizing questions for a variety of reasons:
Brainteasers are less complicated than
business cases and therefore don’t sift out The firms expect you
the star candidates as effectively as business
to have an aptitude
cases do;
for crunching the
Brainteasers do not showcase a candidate’s numbers. But they
general business knowledge; and
want to see you do
it in the context of a
Candidates are, across the board, improving
their performance on brainteasers due to the business problem.
existence of several good study guides on
the topic.
A complex business case naturally includes a quantitative element. The firms expect
you to have an aptitude for crunching the numbers. But they want to see you do it in
the context of a business problem.
My Passion
Teaching is my passion. I love showing people new and better ways to do things; I
get excited about making complicated concepts easy to understand. Training has
been a common thread in my career, even predating my years in consulting. During
college I moved to Japan for two years and supported myself by teaching English. At
Arthur Andersen, I mentored and trained many new hires in a department that grew
from five consultants to fifty during my time with the firm. At Bain & Company, I
directed my office's training programs for new consultants, instructed new hires at
global training sites, and held the role of Chicago Knowledge Officer.
6
Crack the Casereflects my passion for teaching. I developed the Maximum Value
Model™and the FRAME™Method to equip you with the tools you need to succeed
in your case interviews. My approach to solving business cases fills a critical gap in
the resources available today. Other case guides say you shouldsolve cases by
applying well-known business frameworks—the exact opposite of what the top
consulting firms are saying.
Crack the Caseshows you how to solve your cases like a seasoned consultant. I
have designed ten comprehensive practice cases tailor-made for mock interviewing.
My common sense approach, One Model/One Method™, is easy to understand, easy
to remember, and easy to apply under the pressure of an interview.
My Promise
Crack the Case reinvents case interview preparation. You will not find the tired old
frameworks in this book. Nor will you find practice cases with “Hollywood scripts”for
solutions. You will not find “short”lists of ninety-plus questions to memorize.
Instead, you will find:
Mental roadmaps and a few key questions to help you drive through your
cases with direction and confidence
A structured approach that keeps you logical and focused on the data
Ten tough practice cases coded by difficulty level
A firsthand account of the interview and selection process
Insights gleaned from interviewing scores of candidates
Are you ready to raise your game to the next level? Welcome to Crack the Case.
I look forward to working with you.
David Ohrvall
7
Part 1
What Really Matters
Crack the Case:
How to Conquer Your Case Interviews
consultingcase.com
Chapter 1
A View from Behind the
Interview Desk
“Did you crack the case?”
About five minutes had passed in my first interview with a Bain & Company partner. It
was the first of two interviews I would have that morning—the “fit”interview, to be
followed by a case interview. The partner’s job was easy. He would determine
whether I suited the Bain culture and might make a good summer intern. I thought
the interview was going very well. We had a nice exchange aboutthe firm, why I was
interested in management consulting and why he thought Bain was the best place to
work. And then I felt things start to slip.
I couldn’t put my finger on it. Maybe it was intuition from several years of client
meetings. Maybe it was a slight change in his body language. Whatever the source,
I knew he was mentally tossing me in the “ding” bucket. And there was no way I
would let that happen without a fight. My blood pressure risingby the second, I took a
risk and asked him point blank, “What problem do you have with my working for Bain
this summer?”
He blinked in surprise, then paused awkwardly. Finally, he spoke: “Well, let me see,”
he said, pulling out my resume again. “To me you seem like the kind of person who
would fit well at EDS [systems consulting] or Andersen [Ouch! I had just come from
there!]. So my question to you is: did you crack the case?”
All I could do was smile and say, “We’ll find out soon. My next interview is the case.”
We shook hands and I left. I cracked that first case. Within the next two days I went
to the final round, cracked three more cases, and was offered the job.
9
My own entrance into management consulting is a lesson how quickly an interviewer
can make decisions about a candidate. It is also a lesson how each candidate has
the power to change the course of an interview. Like everyone else, I had prepared
for my case interviews using whatever materials and mock interview partners I could
find. But to be honest, I still felt unprepared and incredibly nervous.
“Did you crack the case?” This question sums up the purpose of the case interview.
Cracking a case is not a matter of finding the oneright answer. Nor is it a matter of
simply saying all the expected things during the interview. To crack a case is to
systematically solve a business problem using logic and data in an organized
manner. It is one of the few objective criteria firms can use to evaluate and compare
you to other candidates.
Some schools do not disclose
MBA grades. Undergraduate In the firms’ view,
performance is somewhat dated
your performance
and is considered before
interviews, not afterward. GMAT during the case
scores help, but almost all
interview is the best
candidates are above the “high”
predictor of your
threshold. Looks, personality and
manners do play minor roles, as I’ll future success.
discuss later. But in the end, it
always comes down to the case.
As I interviewed MBA’s and undergraduates and talked with other interviewers, I
found the “crack the case” mentality to be a constant theme. Why? Because a case
interview is a unique tool that allows the firms to “test drive” their candidates, to
assess their mental horsepower, and to preview their ability to communicate with
clients. In the firms’ view, your performance during the case interview is the best
predictor of your future success.
In this chapter, I’d like to give you a glimpse into the mind of a typical interviewer
talking with two different candidates. Both look great on paper, with comparable
backgrounds and experience. They are from the same school and have similar
GPA’s and GMAT scores. What will differentiate them as they try to solve this basic
profitability case? Read on.
Meet Danny Ding
Minutes 0-2
Danny’s a nice guy. He steps forward quickly after I call his name inthe waiting room
where twenty-five candidates are sitting, making small talk with the greeters. Firm
handshake. Good eye contact. Nice smile and a few pleasant comments about the
weather. I like this guy; we’re off to a good start as we walk to the interview room.
Today we’re in a fancy hotel suite, and I motion for him to take the seatacross the
desk from me.
10
